The Power of Love
by Muirnin
Summary: It's Valentine's Day - there's a blizzard, there is no gas and no power and Hummelberry is alone in the loft with all of that going on - rated for language


_**The Power of Love**_

By Muirnin Cocan

_Disclaimer: I neither own nor claim any other rights in the characters and other concepts created for Glee. I make no money, nor do I seek any commercial advantage from this work. As such it constitutes "Fair Use" as defined in 17 U.S.C. §107._ _FAIR USE " Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."_

_Glee belongs to the powers that be - RIB (Ryan Murphy, Ian Brennan, & Brad Falchuk) oh and Fox …_

_Author's Note: As with all things in my life Real Life tends to make a mockery of every single one of my attempts to write every day. I had planned to print out all of my unfinished stories so I could work on them but not only was I out of black ink ... I changed the font color to red and tried again and found out that my printer was broken ...Oh did I mention they were turning off the power to replace the pole out back? Yeah sos I have no power right now so everything that you will read in this story was written out long hand ... AND I have to retype everything out once the power gets turned back on and try to get it done before I need to go to bed since I am working tomorrow rather than having my normal day off. I am really grateful of the fact that I have today off ... did I mention my real job is from home? Yeah I am one of the lucky ones who has an actual job with a fortified company that has a division that works strictly from home._

_Any who ... I am going to post this either tonight or in the morning on Valentine's Day ... hence why nothing I had written earlier is being updated today ... This will be a one-shot (at least I think it will be) written specifically for Valentine's Day and now you can understand why the main topic of story this is primarily Hummelberry (since it is Hummelberry Month of Neglect) and power outages ... go figure where I got my inspiration from ... _

The Power of Love

Kurt and Rachel had lived in New York City long enough that they knew how to handle blizzards as well as power outages that went along with them. Generally they were alone in the loft which was a change from all the previous outages they had endured. Usually there was someone there with them whether it was Adam and Santana as it was for their very first blizzard or since the start of Pamela Lansbury it would be Santana, Dani, Elliott and later on included Blaine. One time it was even their folks ... Burt and Carole and Hiram and Leroy.

But this was the first time that it had been just Kurt and Rachel ... alone together and worst of all ... it was Valentine's Day.

Now to most everyone else in the world that would not be a bad thing being stuck with loved ones away from the rest of the world but for this pair it was not the case. It had been nearly six years since Finn had died and since then Rachel had kept herself busy with Funny Girl until the production had ended a couple of months before ... she had also not been involved in any relationships either her thoughts on that being that doing so would be a betrayal to Finn's memory despite what all of her friends had told her.

Kurt on the other hand now hated Valentine's Day ... with a passion that burned hot and to him it was just another day. The year before he had been surprised when he received a delivery of 2 dozen red roses in a finely cut Irish crystal vase ... then a week later Blaine had take off for California for a show he was doing and sent him an email to Kurt saying he was breaking off the engagement ... and Oh before he heard about it from anyone else he got married to someone else ... a guy who was a part of a musical that he was staring in that Kurt didn't know anything about.

Unbeknownst to Kurt, Blaine had been acting like he was auditioning for different shows and not any permanent musicals after he had finished a short run in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Finding success on Broadway had not been limited to just Rachel and Blaine but also after he had graduated from NYADA Kurt had finally gotten a Broadway Production ... much to the disappointment of Isabel Wright. He was currently playing the iconic role of Peter Allen in the latest production of The Boy From Oz. Recently there was tremendous amount of buzz around the topic of him getting nominated for a TONY.

"DAMN!" Rachel's voice called out from the kitchen.

Kurt looked up from his battery powered laptop where he was working on script he was writing as a possible production for himself and Rachel. Saving the document he set the laptop aside and started heading to the kitchen to see what had caused Rachel's outburst. "What happened?"

"Not only is the power out but I had just finished cutting up all the vegetables and getting the soup started but now the stoves not working ... it's like the gas is turned off. Kurt can you check the heater to see if its working ... please?" Rachel pleaded.

"Well since you asked so nicely" Kurt joked "Well the gas is not working ... the heater is off. It could be an outage of some sort whether for an emergency or whatever" Kurt said as he went around and turned each of the valves of the gas supplied appliances.

"Kurt there is a major blizzard going on what are we going to do without heat ... and FOOD ... Kurt how are we going to cook!" Rachel said as she looked out the window to check the status of the storm, the cold coming off the old windows cause her to feel the freezing temperatures as if she was outside. "Kurt we are going to freeze to death as well as starve not being able to cook" she said in a panicked whine.

Kurt walked up to where Rachel stood and wrapped his arms around her from behind "Honey trust me we won't freeze to death ... we have the fireplace for heat and we can cook in it as well and if worst comes to worst we do have the barbecue up on the roof ... Good thing I bought that cord of wood last fall. Now, go grab yourself something warm to wear ... I am going to need your help to get some of the wood down here" Kurt said as he hugged her to keep her spirits up. He then let her go and went over to grab his coat gloves and the log carriers that he had stored in his room. "Just in case I do have a few things stashed away for such an emergency."

Rachel ran to her room and when she came out she was wearing more layers than Kurt would on a good day. Grabbing her coat she started to put it on when Kurt grabbed her arm.

"What are you wearing? We are only going to be up there for a few minutes and Rachel what is that ... is that an Animal sweater? I thought you had thrown them all away years ago" Kurt said as he looked at the sweater she wore on top of the many layers she had put on.

"I didn't want to get cold ... besides this sweater is new" Rachel said defensively as she looked down at the beauty of the black stallion that adorned the black sweater she wore. "I got this a couple of months ago when I was out Christmas shopping. Don't you like it?"

Kurt opened the front of her coat and felt the material in the sweater shaking his head "You fashion revert-er" he accused "is that Alpaca? That won't keep you as warm as you would be if you were wearing good old fashioned sheep wool."

Rachel good naturedly rolled her eyes "I've got a few layers on ... is it going to be safe enough using the fireplace?"

"Yes honey ... the flue is in good shape and I had the chimney sweep come in and cleaned it out last spring" Kurt said.

"Why didn't I now about that?" Rachel asked shocked that something that major had happened and she hadn't been around.

"Well, you were busy with Funny Girl and I didn't want to bother you with it" said Kurt.

"But you were busy too …" Rachel argued.

"You should know by now that I've always been very good at organizing my events very well. It was something I started to do before NYADA" responded Kurt.

Rachel knew before NYADA was code for when he broke up with Blaine which was still a very sore subject for the countertenor.

Seeing the amount of snow that had piled up on the skylight roof of the access door for the roof Rachel said "I'll follow you out … I really don't want to get that first blast of cold air."

"Well with the internal stair access to the roof now be glad we aren't trying to carry all the wood up and down the fire escape …" laughed Kurt.

"This is very true" Rachel said as she followed behind Kurt using his body to block the air when he finally got the door opened.

They had built the internal stairway after they had received a letter from the attorney a couple years before letting them know that the sale of the building had been complete. Between Finn's life insurance policy that had left Rachel as his sole beneficiary and the addition of the money that the Hummel's and the Berry's had used as an investment towards their combined children's future Rachel and Kurt were able to purchase the building that the loft was located in, they decided to make many improvements for all of their tenants which included solid walls, full kitchens and up to date bathrooms … all other apartments other than their own.

Instead the only change they made to their own apartment had been to update the bathroom making more shelving space and the interior private access to the roof. When asked why they didn't each take a separate apartment for each of them since they had the ability Rachel and Kurt looked at each other as if they were communicating with each other and then said they liked living with each other and besides since the income generated by the tenancy provided them with more money they had more to invest in more improvements for the building which given the changes and increased the value of the property by double.

"Gucci fucking Chanel it's cold!" came the exclamation from Kurt as he finally go the access hatch open. The sky light entrance had been so packed with snow he had really needed to use some muscle to push the door open.

"I had thought that putting the portico over the top of the roof access would decrease the majority of the snow that would accumulate on the sky light … but with this wind whipping up … I guess I was wrong" Kurt said.

"Kurt … it was a good idea … I mean we will just need to rethink it for the next time" Rachel said as she got to the top of the stairs "Shit, if this went unchecked there would be some major damage done to the roof under all this snow … let's get this wood downstairs I am freezing already. How do the homeless live like this in these conditions."

"That's the thing honey, they don't" Kurt said solemnly as he pulled back the tarp over the cord of wood and started to fill the carriers they brought up with logs. "We may need to make a couple of trips … I don't want to make these too heavy."

"Well we don't need to take all the wood down we can just take a bit to start … I'm assuming you do know how to start a fire in the fireplace?" Rachel's aid sarcastically.

"Of course I do … in fact your carrier is going to have the kindling and a couple of logs" Kurt said as he was filling his carrier with only logs" At least the wood isn't wet and it has been well seasoned. Rachel had seen where the kindling was and put a bit more into her carrier since she figured if she kept moving she would be less cold than when she was just standing around.

"You know Kurt, maybe we should think about doing some sort of solar panels or something up here … so we can be off the grid so to speak" Rachel mentioned as they headed back down to the warmth of the loft.

"That is an excellent idea … at least if we cover the electric for the tenants we can charge more for rent" Kurt smiled as he made sure to seal the door shut "OK, let's get this fire going and then get a kettle on for something warm to drink … then we can get your soup going as well. I may have a trick or two that might impress you as well …" Kurt gave another grin as he shed his coat and began to get the fireplace set up for a good long fire.

"Sounds great" Rachel said as she began shedding a couple of layers until she was down to what was comfortable in the warmth that was left. Rachel then watched carefully what Kurt was doing so she would know if she ever had to start a fire in the fireplace if he wasn't there.

After the fire was going in the fireplace, Kurt pulled a trunk that was on wheels out of his room and he opened it up to find an extensive stash of emergency supplies.

"I started stocking up after that first snow storm we had when it was us with Adam and Santana … Just been adding to it over the years as needed" Kurt said as he pulled out a cast iron tea kettle "It's amazing what you can find at flea markets and such … and did you know they have web sites devoted to preparing for emergencies …" he added as he took the kettle over and filled it with water. Then carried the filled kettle over to the fireplace and hung it from an unseen hook in the chimney.

"How on earth did you do that?" Rachel asked and was waved over by Kurt who showed her a number of heavy duty chains hanging down in the center of the chimney. "Oh that's clever. I'm surprised we never did this before! We've had other storms but I guess we've been lucky we had the gas" she added as she went over to the trunk to see what all he had accumulated over the years. Carefully she started going through the different food stuffs he had packed in the box and realized "Wow these are some interesting choices you have here … Kurt thank you … you actually thought about me and have vegetarian fare here."

"I wasn't going to force you to only eat what I like to eat sweetie … I always think of you er … your food choices" Kurt felt a light blush flaming his cheeks and carefully turned his head to see if Rachel had noticed at all and thanked the designers that be that she had not noticed or paid attention to what he had said.

Wearing a pair of heavy duty gloves used in welding Kurt secured a rack on the nails that were on the inside of the fireplace then went over to the stove and brought over the large soup pot Rachel had painstakingly worked on earlier he realized that it was too tall for the space available. Gauging the amount of space needed he went back to his trunk and got another of his cast iron cooking cauldrons that had a handle and proceeded to fill it with the soup and then after putting the lid on the pot he picked it up using the handle and hung it off the chain with an S hook.

"It looks delicious are those vegetables all from the garden?" Kurt asked as he started straightening up the area. Taking off his gloves he looked at Rachel.

"Yes, what we hadn't been able to use yet I put into the cold storage area that you put over in the kitchen. I also used a lot of the herbs that I had dried out last summer. If our garden has an output like this next year I may need to invest in a dehydrator and start doing my own storage as well …" Rachel said as she lounged on the sofa in the living room.

"So how are you doing now Rachel? We haven't had much of a chance to talk lately …" Said Kurt as he took a seat next to his best friend.

"I'm ok I guess … I haven't really given myself much time to get over no longer doing Funny Girl … I'm not sure what I want to do now? Rachel said sadly.

Kurt turned and looked at the sad eyes on the tiny brunette "You do know that you don't have to push yourself … take some time off to think about your future. I heard a rumor that the actress that is playing our Liza in the show is going to take a leave of absence … you could always take the part."

"That's sweet Kurt, but I couldn't be Liza Minnelli … even if it was to your Peter Allen … you are marvelous in the role" Rachel said.

"Well you were going to be in Cabaret at McKinley … but you are better suited for a Barbra role …" Kurt admitted then after a bit of thought brought up the idea that he had been working on given his growing affection for his best friend. "although I have been writing a play that has you in mind … it's on the laptop and the first draft is done."

"Really you are going to let me read what you have been working on for the last few months?" Rachel said excitedly as she got up off the sofa but was stopped by Kurt's hold on her arm.

"There's something you should know about this script … it's sort of based on real life" confessed Kurt "So you may be surprised by some of the … emotions in it so don't be mad."

"What are you not telling me Kurt" Rachel said concernedly.

"Go ahead and read it … I'll answer any and all questions you have afterwards." Kurt said as he let go of her arm and watched her walk over to the kitchen table where the laptop was sitting and still on from earlier.

As Rachel began to read every so often she would look up at Kurt who was sitting bent over on the sofa with his head in his hands. Tears started to fill her eyes when all of the sudden the laptop shut off.

"SHIT!" screeched Rachel "Damn this laptop … why won't it turn on" she kept trying to turn it on and was practically pounding on the poor electronic device.

Kurt ran over to her side and grasped her hand to keep her from hurting her hand or the laptop "Easy now, the poor defenseless laptop didn't do any thing to cause such abuse it so … looks like the battery died"

He kept her hand held in his "Did you get to read any of it?"

"You said this is based on real life … so that means your own emotions and feelings?" Rachel asked as she looked up into his beautiful eyes.

Kurt stayed silent for a short time then nodded "Yes it does reflect the way I really feel."

"Why didn't you say anything before?" as she looked down at their hands that were still entwined.

He shrugged his shoulders "Embarrassed I guess … not about you but because of what I am."

"You have nothing to be embarrassed about … we've always known that we love each other and I told you senior year we were soul-mates. After Finn died, I never thought of spending my life with anyone other than you, but you were in love with Blaine" he flinched at the sound of his ex-fiance's name "at the time and I had promised myself that if losing you to Blaine then I would do everything I could to make sure you stayed happy … I love you that much."

Kurt stared at Rachel's chocolate brown eyes and saw the honesty, sincerity and the love shining back from them and he did something he had only done on stage by being the one to initiate the action.

He leaned down and kissed her with as much love and passion that he possessed and was a bit surprised when Rachel returned the kiss matching the emotions in the kiss. Lifting her up out of the chair while still kissing he carried her over to the sofa where they sat and continued to explore each other's mouths and soon their bodies.

"I love you more than anyone else in the world and I would be happy to enjoy being part of your life for as long as you would let me" Kurt said. "I think you and I know that we are a part of each other forever. You were destined to be with Finn as endgame whatever that means … but would you allow me to be your endgame now?"

"Kurt, you mean more to me then anyone in the world and you know how much I love you … sharing your life no matter what is what I have wanted since even before Finn died … I am honored that you want me to be YOUR endgame" Rachel said "Any way you want me I will be there mentally, emotionally and if you choose sexually as well."

Hearing the words from Rachel's mouth meant a great deal to Kurt as he knew that if he was going to have a physical relationship with anyone it would always be Rachel. She had proven that when she had agreed to do the 2nd audition during West Side Story … all though at that time they were young and her reaction to the directors' reaction showed that as well … but now they are older and actually know what they really want in life and she would be his "I want that all with you as well, but we have time to explore that side of our relationship. How about we see how dinner is coming … I think we have found a reason to enjoy Valentine's Day."

"That's a good idea … I uh I sort of made you a Valentine's present …" Rachel said. "I know you don't like this day anymore than I do but your right we do have a reason to enjoy it and I have the perfect thing." Rachel got up from the sofa and went into the kitchen and went to the refrigerator. She then pulled out a opaque container and handed it to Kurt. "Happy Valentine's Day love … I hope you enjoy this."

Taking the container he opened it up and inside he saw a Raspberry covered cheesecake. "When did you make this?" He kissed her "Thank you Rachel it's so thoughtful and beautiful" Kurt said as he carefully lifted the cheesecake out of the container and took the spring form off the sides and set it on the table.

"Last night after you went to bed … I know how much you love cheesecake and while I try to stick to my vegan diet … you have known me to indulge in a few non-vegan fares … I may never knowingly eat regular meat … but I will always allow you to eat what you want and appreciate when you go vegetarian." Rachel said as she went over and checked the soup as it cooked over the fire.

"How's the soup coming?" Kurt asked as he watched his favorite girl stirring the soup and looked like someone from a different era as she tended the cauldron.

"It's actually almost done … I had roasted most of the harder vegetables before starting the soup … need to mash them up a bit so they are a creamy blend" Rachel said as she went in search of the potato masher since she couldn't use the blender stick that she usually used.

"Need any help?" Kurt asked as he walked over to her.

"I'm good just mashing this up … but you may need to grab your gloves to help carry this over when I finish the mashing … That thing looks heavy!" Rachel joked.

"Well it's not light that's true … just let me know" Kurt said.

"So what are we going to do while the power is out?" Rachel asked.

"We can start making more plans for the future … we'll just have to write them down the old fashioned way … maybe work more on our script together the same way." Kurt said.

For the next few hours they enjoyed the supper and dessert that Rachel had made and then sat cuddled on the sofa that they had placed in front of the fire place making their plans for the future … which Kurt realized that while the gas and power were out they had made their own power … the power of love.

THE END

_Author's additional notes: Happy Valentine's Day or Happy Anti-Cupid Day for all those like me who have no love life anymore! I have to get any romance I can vicariously through my characters … but that's what happens when you're alone in the world. I got nearly 3000 words written when the power was out and it took hours for me to type it back up as it was really hard to read my own handwriting! Obviously I have written more than that for this story … and since I had to work this morning I am trying to get this story finished today!_

_I have abandoned any 12-step program for my addiction to reviews and being a review whore and so … I beg of you … please feed my addiction … You all are the best … So be constructive … throw out ideas … But thanks for reading it and remember … _

_FEED MY ADDICTION! The box is right here …_

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